"Amazing Grace" is one of those old hymns embedded in the American protestant tradition and yet so transcendent that somehow it rises above that tradition with a power unrelated to theology. You needn't be a believer to be moved by it, and many are.
I'm sure you know the story. Most of the words we sing were written by John Newton (1725-1807), a slave-trader turned Anglican clergyman, later a fierce abolitionist. Written to illustrate a sermon for New Years Day 1773, they were published in the 1779 "Olney Hymns," first verse at left at the bottom of the page, but eventually declined into obscurity in Britain. Were the words originally associated with a melody? No one knows.
Revived in American during the early 19th century's Second Great Awakening, the words became associated with a folk tune called "New Britain" and still for the most part are. The verse beginning "When we've been there ten thousand years ...," usually sung in conclusion now, was published first in Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," drawn from the traditions of American slaves.
This version is an arrangement by Kansas City-based composer Mark Hayes, performed during 2017 by the San Francisco Gay Mens Chorus during its Lavender Pen Tour at First Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina. The take-away: No one has the grace market cornered, nor are there gatekeepers with power to stand between grace and those who experience it in doses major or minor.
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